World Development Report lauds India’s Aadhaar card system

New Delhi: Providing a unique identification number called Aadhaar to every citizen of India proved all odds wrong as it was once considered impossible. And today, Washington is referring to India mentioning that how the country succeeded in reducing the corruption level in public services by providing this unique identity number to its mammoth population.

The new ‘World Development Report 2016’ noted that Indians were using their digital identification numbers called Aadhaar to open bank accounts, monitor attendance of civil servants, and identify recipients of government subsidies.

Deepak Mishra and UweDeichmann, leader of a 15 member team said in a 350 plus page report, “in public health services, simple SMS messages have proven effective in reminding people living with HIV to take their lifesaving drugs.”

The report also gave a brief of the scenario around. It stated that no matter the advancement led to the increase in the number of cell phones, internet supplies, and connectivity and in other digital technologies. But on the other side of the coin these all advancement have led to a great loss in the number of jobs, growth and better public services and most importantly expectations.

“The digital revolution is transforming the world, aiding information flows, and facilitating the rise of developing nations that are able to take advantage of these new opportunities,” said Kaushik Basu, World Bank Chief Economist.

According to an analysis, at most 60% of the world’s population still remain unaware and omitted out of all such expansions and advancements in the digital economy. Undoubtedly, the number of internet users increased from 2005, but still more than four billion people around the world remain deprived of the web.

And to excel in the digital age, two methods have been put forward by the World Bank. Making the internet universal, affordable, open, safe as this will ensure competition among business, adapting workers’ skills to the demands of the new economy and fostering accountable institutions.

China being the most populated country has a massive number of internet users, but on the other hand, India and China both contribute to the largest number of offline users. Whereas, more than 120 million people are offline in North America.

Rapid advancements and internet has led to business expansion as well. The report claimed that India, Jamaica and the Philippines have captured the shares of global markets. More and more opportunities for people have increased exponentially.

Traction costs have minimized, jobs can be shortlisted easily. Most importantly, women can come forward and show up their talents. Differently abled people can prove themselves as an asset to the society.

As internet has got no boundaries, it is limitless in all its domains. This strategy has let people to exchange goods from across the border, which in along run also strengthens the relations within two countries. (Inputs from agencies)

The new survey reveals Indians top the list of tourists glued to their phones while on vacation.(Representative image) Wikimedia

New Delhi, October 15, 2017 : Indians top ahead of Thailand and Mexico when it comes to using social media while holidaying, says a survey conducted by Expedia.

Indians love to be connected all the time, however, it also means that they do not disconnect from work much.

Indians are globally most anxious on not being able to access WiFi or internet to check work e-mail (59 per cent). In fact they lead in showing a preference for an airline that offers in-flight WiFi (33 per cent). Hence, 14 per cent Indians are always working on a vacation, #1 globally, followed by the US (seven per cent) and Brazil (six per cent).

Social media is emerging as strong driving force in creating vacation happiness with Indians being number one in always taking selfies (22 per cent), posting photos on social media (22 per cent), “checking in” on social media (21 per cent) and connecting with others through social media (19 per cent), said the Expedia survey.

The survey also highlighted that even though Indians are social media obsessed beach-goers who spend the majority of their time uploading pictures and video, 24 per cent of their compatriots find it very annoying, said the statement. (IANS)

New Delhi, August 24, 2017: In another landmark verdict by the Supreme Court, Right to privacy was made a fundamental right for citizens of India. Supreme Court today ruled: The right to privacy “is protected as an intrinsic part of Article 21 that protects life and liberty.”

A crowd of petitioners previously challenged the government’s Aadhaar biometric project, which has taped the iris scans and fingerprints of more than half a population.

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan noted ‘all fundamental rights come with reasonable restrictions.’ He further cautioned by saying that ‘whether Aadhaar can be seen as a reasonable restriction has yet to be decided’.

The decision came out unanimously by the bench of 9 judges including Chief Justice JS Khehar. Right to privacy is a fundamental right of every citizen, the judges said, overruling two previous Supreme Court judgments.

It is a watershed moment, remarked Sajan Poovayya, a petitioner in the case. “Whatever the state decides will be checked and tested on that basis. The powers of the state are curtailed to some extent,” he told NDTV.

Background: Government vs. Petitioners

The government argued in the past that ‘right to privacy’ is not explicitly embodied in the Constitution as the founding fathers expelled the idea of inclusion of privacy as a fundamental liberty.

However, petitioners contended that in technologically dynamic society, the identification of privacy as a fundamental freedom is an essential step against interference into personal space by the government and private players.

With the growing number of transactions done over the internet, information shared on such digital platforms become imperiled to misuse and theft.

Right to privacy bearing on Section 377

In 2013, the apex Court had supported Section 377 of the IPC, an iron fisted law that criminalizes the intimate relations “against the law of nature.” Today, the court’s decree on Right to Privacy also brought the protection of physical intimacies.

Explaining the concept of privacy, Justice DY Chandrachud, who was part of the nine-judge bench that pronounced the verdict, said in his judgment: “Privacy includes at its core the preservation of personal intimacies, the sanctity of family life, marriage, procreation, the home and sexual orientation… Privacy also connotes a right to be left alone.”

NewsGram is a Chicago-based non-profit media organization. We depend upon support from our readers to maintain our objective reporting. Show your support by Donating to NewsGram. Donations to NewsGram are tax-exempt.

These measures are taken to reduce the rising number of identity theft cases

New Delhi, August 02, 2017: Facebook is building a global community by launching features that provide aid to the users across the world, creating products that are targetted for specific regions. In one particular news segment at Facebook’s newsroom, they updated that Facebook profile pictures will now be protected with security guards, they have updated this feature for Indian users specifically, due to the rising demand to protect Identity.

India has a remarkably high number of identity theft cases, and this update by Facebook is indeed a commendable job. As it reads in their news headline “Giving people more control over their Facebook profile pictures.” Facebook promotes tools that provide its users to access the social media with an overall secure experience, Facebook’s promotional tools, and targeting a larger audience with their various other tactics serves well to their business.

“Profile pictures are an important part of building community on Facebook because they help people find friends and create meaningful connections. But not everyone feels safe adding a profile picture. In our research with people and safety organizations in India, we’ve heard that some women choose not to share profile pictures that include their faces anywhere on the internet because they’re concerned about what may happen to their photos”, says Aarti Soman, Product Manager at Facebook India.

[sociallocker][/sociallocker]

“These tools, developed in partnership with Indian safety organizations like Centre for Social Research, Learning Links Foundation, Breakthrough and Youth Ki Awaaz, are designed to give people more control over their experience and help keep them safe online”, she adds.

Even though Facebook provides safety features like – guards and watermarks for profile pictures, it doesn’t entirely protect us from the identity theft, it’s quite uncertain as to how they plan to protect other pictures uploaded on the social media?

Identity theft is a common practice in India and it is very easy to steal identity from any social media, by stealing a person’s basic identity like – Name, Pictures, Address or Date of Birth and use it for unfair practices. People can use this information and pose as the person they have stolen from and commit fraud or offenses.

But, is the practice only limited to India? It very understood that India has the highest concerns for identity theft and lack of safety but places like Australia and UK have observed a trend of identity theft as well, while they have stricter laws and a strong jurisdiction is followed and despite these laws, they have observed a marginally high rate of theft and unlawful practice in this case.

Facebook doesn’t guarantee a total protection from theft as it only provides 75% security, as the pictures could still be screenshotted from Andriod phones, while this is not possible in the case of IOS users. There is also no restriction for users who take a screenshot from their desktop or laptop browsers. While these security measures are not foolproof, they could well reduce identity theft and give Indian social media users some additional peace of mind. India is a test case and the feature will soon be available in other countries as well.

Social media companies could do more to build protections against identity theft and make users aware of the available tools. People should also use their discretion and not let their guard down in the social media hunting ground.

–Prepared by Nivedita Motwani. Twitter @Mind_Makeup

NewsGram is a Chicago-based non-profit media organization. We depend upon support from our readers to maintain our objective reporting. Show your support by Donating to NewsGram. Donations to NewsGram are tax-exempt.